Jamaican Spirit

I purposely tried to avoid Air Jamaica for this trip for more reasons than one. Now I have come to the conclusion that Spirit is no better.

Based on my prior blog about the lost case of Jamaica’s airline, I know some of you are thinking that Spirit and AirJa are now one in the same. However, it is to my understanding that the deal between the two was never finalised. Still, here I am on Spirit Airlines experiencing the same problems I tried to avoid.

I have been at the airport since 10 this morning, been awake since 8, and been annoyed since 12. After getting only 5 hours of sleep last night, I was hoping to venture to the airport this morning on time–which I actually did–and board the flight at 11 15 as stated on my boarding pass. How wrong I was.

The first announcement, which came 45 minutes after the scheduled boarding time, was that there was a problem with a flight attendant and she was sent home. This meant that we were forced to wait until another attendant came to take her place before we could board the flight. The announcer found it imperative to mention that “It may take 30 minutes, it may take an hour; we don’t know. It all depends on when she can get here.” Those were not very uplifting statements. Luckily, though, she only took about 5 minutes. We boarded the plane thereafter, all thinking we were minutes away from departure.

After everything was settled, Mr. Flight Attendant came on the speaker and told us to turn off all electronic devices and prepare for departure. Fifteen minutes later, still in the same place, the Captain finally found it necessary to let us know that we were not going anywhere because someone’s bag was lost and they were trying to find it.

Maybe it is just me, but I think that sounds kind of crazy. How did they lose someone’s bag when Spirit has its own entire section of the airport? On the other hand though, some airlines would probably disregard that one bag and just take off anyway–that is the silver lining I have found, along with the fact that when I arrived my bag was safe and sound.

All in all, the delay was only an hour and 40 minutes–it could have been worse. The runway was full of planes and we actually had to wait in a line to take off. (I guess the airport is just that busy during Christmas time.)

Still, the flight was very smooth and I am more than relieved to be safely home as the recent crash in Kingston had me a little bit more nervous than usual. I was not successfully able to pep talk myself by using the “more likely to get struck by lightning than die in a plane crash” statistic, and instead calmed my anxiety by listening to my Owl City playlist and thinking about the beach.

On that note, I had hoped to step off the aeroplane and into the sand but since that never happened, you should already know where to find me for the next two weeks.